### [Interested in sponsoring? Check out the prospectus](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZYDi9dKCI47caU9vr69dvdhH0Enm2XcM/view)

### A little history

Several years ago I had the distinct privilege of founding Midwest PHP with Jonathan Sundquist. The goal was simple, to bring an affordable PHP conference to Minnesota and the midwest region.

Midwest PHP was created for one simple reason - there weren't a lot of alternatives, especially affordable ones. At the time, your choices were ZendCon in Silicon Valley, php[tek] in Chicago, or Northeast PHP in Boston. While Northeast PHP formed the blueprint of a community conference - it still required a flight and a costly hotel in Boston. I wanted something where local attendees, college students, and those just beginning in their PHP careers could go to learn, network, and become part of the PHP community.

Shortly after Midwest PHP was formed (originally we were using the name PHPFreeze - until Sundquist told me what a horrible idea it was), Adam Culp launched Sunshine PHP which has become one of the top community focused PHP conferences (but still requires that flight and hotel in Miami). Sundquist and I knew that any reasonable developer would still prefer to attend a conference in a blizzard than enjoy the beautiful Floridian weather (ok, that might not be it, but we still understood the need that existed).

After moving to California for my new job, Jonathan Sundquist continued to run Midwest PHP as more community conferences appeared. With his efforts, and the torch being passed to Mike Willbanks, Midwest PHP celebrated it's seventh consecutive year, becoming the longest continuously running PHP conference (if you go by formed date, if you go by actual conference date Sunshine PHP beats us out by a month).

Because of the incredible work Jonathan and Mike have done, Midwest PHP has stood the test of time - and the peaks and valleys that come with any conference. With the shifts in the PHP community and the sad loss of several community conferences - we realized the need for Midwest PHP is more now than ever, and to meet that need we needed to reimagine the way the conference operated.

We also realized that the best way to make Midwest PHP accessible was to combine forces, creating a seamless partnership between Nomad PHP and Midwest PHP. Through this partnership we're not only able to stream the event to make it more accessible ($19.95/mo), but also expand the conference.

This year, taking place on **April 2-4, 2020 - Midwest PHP will bring together over 800 developers** both in-person and virtually! Making this year truly unique, however, and staying with our purpose of helping new developers be part of the PHP community is a **brand new, FREE, beginner track**. I'm excited to say we will be giving away 200 tickets to those wishing to attend our Beginner or Learn PHP track!!!

We will also work to keep prices as low as possible as we offer our standard PHP tracks (Everyday PHP and PHP Performance & Security) starting at $250/ person, and **a brand new enterprise track** geared at developers facing challenges at unprecedented scale starting at $450/ person.

Last but not least, it is our goal with the help of our sponsors to include the workshop day as part of your ticket price - allowing you to get one day of in-depth training, and two more full days of sessions. On top of this, we're also excited to make the Nomad PHP and Nomad JS video libraries available for Standard and Enterprise attendees, providing over 220 additional virtual sessions on demand!

### For sponsors

Sponsoring a conference is hard. We understand the challenge of gauging ROI, planning travel, and coordinating outreach. With the combined forces of Midwest PHP and Nomad PHP, we're able to offer sponsors unique plans that maximize their investment - while ensuring the funds go back into the event to create an amazing experience for our attendees.

Beyond Midwest PHP's goal to be the largest PHP conference this year - the included Nomad PHP advertising will help you reach a much larger and broader audience, allowing for follow up advertisements and consistent engagement with the PHP community.

### [Interested in sponsoring? Check out the prospectus](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZYDi9dKCI47caU9vr69dvdhH0Enm2XcM/view)

### Next steps

For more information, please visit the [Midwest PHP](https://midwestphp.org) website. The venue, call for papers, and additional information will all be posted there soon.

Conferences are always looking for speakers - it can be hard to keep track of them all and the requirements they have. I wanted to put together this quick guide to make it easy for you to apply. Make sure to apply because as Wayne Gretzky said “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”!!!

* For speakers remote to the Area: A refund of up to €200 for travel costs (or €500 from US or extra-EU), 2 complimentary hotel nights (+1 hotel night for speakers presenting multiple talks or US/extra-EU) and Taxi fare from/to the airport.

* **In Submission**: make sure your talk title and abstract define the exact topic you want to talk about and what you hope people will learn from the session.

* For speakers remote to the Area: Complimentary airfare/travel, 2 complimentary hotel nights and we'll pick you up and drop you off to/from the airport so you don't have to worry about it.

* Speakers will be provided with a projector, a wireless lapel microphone and a screen for their presentation (size depends on the room). Speakers should bring any equipment they need to connect to projectors (VGA). It is also suggested that you reduce your dependency on the in-house internet connection as possible. We will however provide HDMI and Mini Display Port connections for all speakers on request. If you need something different or your selected talk needs audio equipment just let us know. We'll work it out.

In 2019 there will be numerous workshops hosted around the globe encouraging and advising newbie speakers to put together your very first talk proposal and share your own individual perspective on any subject of interest to people in tech.

Then there is CoderCruise which will take place on August 19-23. It's a cruise that takes off from Port Canaveral, Florida and goes to the Bahamas.

* Twitter: (@codercruise)

* **Submission deadline**: March 3, 2019

* **Submit via**: https://www.papercall.io/codercruise-2019

* For more info on the conference: https://www.codercruise.com/

* This is a polyglot conference so looking for speakers on a wide variety of languages (PHP, JavaScript, Java, Python, etc.) and on various tech topics.

## PHP Conference Asia 2019

There is also PHP Conference Asia 2019, which will take place on June 24-25 at Microsot Singapore.

* **Submission deadline**: March 8, 2019

* **Submit via:** https://cfp.phpconf.asia/

* For more info on the conference: https://2019.phpconf.asia/

* Twitter: (@PHPConfAsia)

* Speaker package includes: Speaker package: Full conference pass, lunch, receptions and activities included in regular conference. We'll pick you up and drop you off to/from the airport so you don't have to worry about it. Speakers' dinner on the first evening of the conference (24th June 2019). Transport to and from the conference venue will be included

* For speakers remote to the Area: 2 complimentary hotel nights and

we can consider providing grants to partially cover the air-fare for speakers who might have financial difficulties. This is on a case-by-case basis.

* Speakers will be provided with a projector, a wireless hand-held microphone and a screen for their presentation. Speakers should prepare their slides in 4x3 aspect ratio. Speakers should bring any equipment they need to connect to projectors (HDMI). It is also suggested that you reduce your dependency on the in-house internet connection as possible.

* **In Submission**: Make sure your talk title and abstract define the exact topic you want to talk about and what you hope people will learn from the session.

Another conference to apply to is Cascadia PHP, which will take place on September 19-21 at University Place Hotel & Conference Center in Portland, Oregon.

* **Submission deadline**: April 15, 2019

* **Submit via:** https://cfp.cascadiaphp.com/

* For more info on the conference: https://www.cascadiaphp.com/venue

* Twitter: (@CascadiaPHP)

* Speaker package includes: Speaker package: Full conference pass, lunch, receptions and activities included in regular conference. * For speakers remote to the Area: Complimentary airfare/travel, 2 complimentary hotel nights and we'll pick you up and drop you off to/from the airport so you don't have to worry about it.

* Speakers will be provided with a projector, a wireless lapel microphone and a screen for their presentation (size depends on the room). Speakers should bring any equipment they need to connect to projectors (VGA). It is also suggested that you reduce your dependency on the in-house internet connection as possible.

* **In Submission**: make sure your talk title and abstract define the exact topic you want to talk about and what you hope people will learn from the session.

Last but not least - this is an ongoing call for papers. This is perfect if you want to present from the comfort of your office, home or really wherever you are. It’s via RingCentral meetings and will be live and recorded. This is for none other than Nomad PHP.

* Twitter: (@nomadphp)

* Deadline: Anytime :D

* Talk length: 45 - 60 minutes.

* Talks should be unique to Nomad PHP and not available in video format online.

* Talk should not be recorded or made available elsewhere online for at least 3 months following your talk.

* The talk will be featured on our page and promoted via social media.

Halloween is filled with ghouls, ghosts, zombies and lots of other spookiness, but the scariest thing ever is FOMO. It’s conference season and several have their call for papers out (including us at Nomad PHP :D). This is the perfect time for you to share your knowledge with the community. Whether it’s your first time or 100th time - it can be scary to put yourself out there and do a talk, but worse than that is not taking the chance and submitting your talk and doing the presentation. Plus, many of these events host lightning talks (short 5-15 minute talks) - meaning you can test out your talk risk free ;)

![](https://i.imgur.com/xByII.jpg)

So here is your chance - submit for one or submit for all of them. May the odds be ever in your favor!

## Fosdem 2019

First we have Fosdem 2019 which will take place on February 2 & 3 in Brussels,Belgium. Some facts about this call for papers:

* **Deadline:** November 3, 2018

* Presentations are expected to be 50 minutes long (including audience questions) and should cater to a varied technical audience. For examples check out [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdmkLXMwt_g&list=PLaVkMRyQacUQYxXkzvcZJm-kc_FEJpkxK).

Next we have Longhorn PHP which will take place on May 2 (tutorial day) then MAy 3 &4 (conference) in Austin, Texas.

* **Deadline:** December 15, 2018

* For all speakers, you'll get a full conference pass (tutorial day and main conference days), including access to lunch, after-parties, and any other activities included in the conference.

* For speakers remote to the Austin area, we'll provide 3 nights at the speaker hotel (4 nights if presenting a talk and a tutorial) near the conference venue.

* For speakers outside Texas, we'll book you an Economy or equivalent round-trip airfare on a flight into Austin we'd be comfortable taking ourselves (we're conference speakers too!). Plus, we'll arrange transportation between the Austin airport and the speaker hotel.

* Talk length is 30 minutes - Q&A up to the presenters discretion but would be included in the 30 minute time limit.

* Talks will be recorded and distributed for free as well as the presentation slides.

* Looking for a range of talks from PHP (security, testing and frameworks), web development, HTML5, JavaScript, mobile development, emerging technologies and non-technical proposals that will appeal to developers.

* **Talk guidelines:** Objective with clear expectation for audience, short and to the point description, mention of employer is only allowed at the beginning of the content and background image/wallpaper shouldn’t include company name/logos.

Last but not least - this is an ongoing call for papers. This is perfect if you want to present from the comfort of your office, home or really wherever you are. It’s via RingCentral meetings and will be live and recorded. This is for none other than Nomad PHP.

* **Deadline:** Anytime :D

* Talk length: 45 - 60 minutes.

* Talks should be unique to Nomad PHP and not available in video format online.

* Talk should not be recorded or made available elsewhere online for at least 3 months following your talk.

* The talk will be featured on our page and promoted via social media.